Ferb's English Roses
by karly05
Summary: Ferb minds his British granddaughters while Victor and his wife await their newest arrival. A dose of family sweetness from the Clan Fletcher.


**A/N – I have this habit that goes way, way back – I love creating dynasties, generations of families, so it was inevitable that once I started writing for Ferb and Vanessa I would give them a couple of kids, and then I would give those kids kids. I've had this particular little idea about Victor's family kicking around for a while, so I figured I'd go ahead and whip it up into a story.**

 **Reminder: my Ferb went to Ackerton State for college, even though the penultimate episode, "Act Your Age," was sending him to study at "Camford on Oxbury" in England. I already had Ferb's son Victor moving to England, so in my timeline, Victor could logically have ended up studying there.**

 **Ferb and Vanessa belong to Dan & Swampy. Everyone else is mine.**

Ferb's English Roses

Ferb Fletcher opened the oven door and slid the pan of scones onto the rack to bake. Setting the timer, he wiped his hands on a towel and went to deal with the dirty bowls and utensils in the sink. He was glad Claire wasn't around to see what he had done to her kitchen – _It isn't really cooking if you're not making a mess_ , was his culinary motto. But his daughter-in-law was in hospital, attended by Victor and Vanessa and her own parents in the age-old pastime of waiting things out in the maternity ward. Plenty of time to clean up.

Poor Vanessa had fussed and fretted so when her Baby Boy, at the tender age of eighteen, had moved all the way across the Atlantic to go to University in England, but Ferb was proud of Victor for taking the leap. Their son had been a bit timid as a lad, and Ferb was pleased to see how he had matured during his years at Camford on Oxbury. The younger Fletcher had pursued his love of music, met and married a delightful British girl, and now, ten years after leaving the Tri-State Area, was happily raising a charming British family on the outskirts of London. Victor's home was more modern than the old Fletcher cottage Ferb had visited in his own boyhood, but he felt the same contentment in coming here as he had felt when staying with Gran and Gramps back in the day.

Ferb had been keeping an eye on the back garden from the kitchen window. Outside, two little girls were romping. The older one, a sandy-haired six-year-old, was bouncing a football on her knees and feet and head. This was Celia, who bravely bore the square nose of the Fletchers, albeit less pronounced than her grandfather's. The other resemblance between them was not obvious at first glance, but if you studied her for a bit, you could see a slight unevenness to her egg-shaped eyes. Celia lightly booted the football to her younger sister, who picked it up in her tiny hands and made an awkward attempt at balancing it on her knee. Celia laughed, not unkindly, and helped little Charlotte line up and take a shot into the backyard net. The three-year-old had drawn her inheritance from other branches of the family tree. The brown curls and bright, dark eyes had come from Claire, but there was a point to her nose and a point to her chin that were pure Doofenshmirtz, tracing back through her Daddy Victor to her Grandpa Heinz. On the little girl, however, these features gave her a dainty, pixie-ish look, just as the Fletcher features presented Celia as clever and dauntless. Frankly, if you asked Ferb, Celia and Charlotte Fletcher were the two most adorable young ladies in all the world.

Now the FlynnTech F-Link pulsed in his pocket, and he quickly fished it out and flipped it open. Vanessa's head and shoulders, rendered in three dimensions, popped up from the holographic screen. She looked tired, but she still had a smile on her face.

"Hey, Ferb. How's it going?"

Over fifty years had passed since he had first met the love of his life, and this was still how she greeted him. He smiled at her in response. "I should be asking you that."

"Claire's doing fine, but the baby's taking his time," she answered the real question.

"How's Victor holding up?"

"He's doing great. He's a real trouper," said Vanessa of their son.

 _Unlike his father, thank goodness_ , Ferb finished the thought for himself. He had managed a bit better at Victor's birth, but he'd been practically useless when Felicia had come into the world.

Vanessa was going on. "Tim and Cate have told me about a million times how much they appreciate you staying with the girls so they could be here. I told them you were happy to do it."

Oh, yes, Ferb was happy to oblige Victor's in-laws, especially if it meant not spending the day in a hospital waiting room. "My pleasure. We've had a lovely day. I've promised to bring them in as soon as their little brother is here."

"Well, I'll keep you posted." Vanessa turned to look over her shoulder. "A nurse just came out, I think we must be getting closer. I'll let you know. Love you!"

"Love you, too," said Ferb, the words barely out before Vanessa's image disappeared. Pocketing the F-Link, he turned his attention back to the oven and removed the pan of scones, now done to aromatic perfection. Setting them on the counter to cool, he went to the back door and called out into the garden, "Tea time!"

The two little girls, all rosy cheeks and laughter, came scampering into the kitchen. Before the stovetop was even within their sightlines, they began chirping in a general, happy chatter that included the word "scones!"

"Mind, they're hot," Ferb warned them away from the stove. "Celia," he addressed the bigger girl, "would you get a plate, please?"

"I can do it!" her little sister volunteered, launching an attempt to scale the cabinet.

"No," Celia protested. "Charlotte, get off!"

Charlotte appealed to her grandfather with a plaintive look. " _Gerb…"_

That was her name for him. It had started as an infantile attempt at Grandpa Ferb and had stuck. He liked it. "Never mind, my dear," he beckoned her away from the china. "I need you to carry the jam."

"She'll drop it," Celia warned.

"No, I won't." The three-year-old headed for the refrigerator to claim her prize.

"Grandfather…" came the protest. At the ripe old age of six, Celia was practically an adult, and had therefore decided that Grandfather was a more dignified name for him. Ferb liked that, too.

"She'll be careful," Ferb smiled at the smaller girl as he opened the heavy refrigerator door for her and helped her locate the jam. Celia watched for a moment as her little sister walked _ve-ry slow-ly_ to the table until Ferb began loading scones onto the plate she was now holding. Treats to the table, milk for the girls and a cup of tea for Ferb, and they settled down to eat.

"These are _delectable_ ," Celia demonstrated her Big Word of the Day. "Thank you, Grandfather."

"Yes, thank you, Gerb," Charlotte mumbled through a warm mouthful, strawberry jam on her cheek.

"I'm so happy you and Granny Vee came all the way from America to see us," said Celia. Ferb might have been alternately Gerb and Grandfather and Gramps and Grandpa from London to Danville, but Vanessa proudly bore the name Granny Vee wherever her grandmotherly duties took her.

"So am I," said Ferb. "We should do this more often."

"Gerb," said Charlotte, "Is America very far?"

"Rather far," he nodded thoughtfully.

"Kevin says America is a hundred thousand thousand miles from here," Charlotte informed him.

"Who is Kevin?" Ferb arched an eyebrow at the mention of this geographic scholar.

"He's my boyfriend." Charlotte dunked her spoon in the jam and came up with a large piece of strawberry.

"Aren't you a little young to have a boyfriend?" her grandfather challenged.

"Yes," put in Celia disapprovingly. "Yes, she is." When Ferb turned his quizzical glance to her, Celia confided, "He's a little boy in her nursery school."

"He brings me flowers," Charlotte declared proudly. "He's going to marry me."

"This sounds rather serious," said Ferb. "I hope I'm allowed to meet this chap before you go swanning off with him."

"Oh, they're not really getting married," put in Celia, as if this needed to be explained. "You can't get married until you're old. Fifteen or sixteen, at least."

Ferb would have loved to hear Victor's reaction to that. Instead, he asked Celia, "What about you? Stringing along any young chaps?"

"Pfft," Celia's eye roll was worthy of her Granny Vee. "Boys are silly."

"You say that now," Grandfather teased with a small, sly smile. He felt the F-link vibrate again and wiped the crumbs from his fingers as he said, "Would you ladies excuse me, please?" and stepped out of the kitchen to answer the call. It may have been over-protective of him, but delivering a baby was a touch-and-go sort of thing, and he didn't want the girls to be blindsided by any unhappy turn of events. Out of sight of the tea table, he answered the call. It was a relief to see Vanessa's face beaming with joy, and the first words out of her mouth were a proud, "He's here!" When she saw him alone, she asked, "Where are the girls?"

He just smiled back at her and carried the device back to the tea table with an announcement of, "Look who called."

"Granny Vee!" "Granny Vee!" was the excited response, and Celia said, "Did the baby come?"

"He's waiting to meet his big sisters," Vanessa nodded.

"Then we'd better be on our way," said Ferb.

"Does he want a scone?" Charlotte held one out toward the image of her grandmother.

"Not yet, but you can bring me one," was Vanessa's response.

"Come on," Ferb motioned tohis granddaughters. "We'll bring the lot. Scones for everyone." He addressed his wife, "Tell them we're on the way." He ended the call, and the three of them prepared to leave the house. One touch of an icon on the F-Link summoned a hover cab and it was waiting outside when Ferb closed the front door behind them. The automated transport pod scanned the trio and the interior reconfigured itself to provide proper safety seats and restraints for the two children. When they were all comfortably inside the vehicle, the voice of the Virtual Driver said, in a genteel feminine tone, "Please state your destination." Ferb still thought the computer should have been programmed to offer a good old-fashioned bloke's "Where to, guv?" but he answered, "Saint Thomas' Hospital, please," and away they went.

It was a swift trip through the sky lanes and before long they were touching down outside the maternity wing, where Vanessa awaited them. A flurry of hugs and kisses among the group and they went inside to join the girls' Mummy and Daddy, Gran and Grandad, and new baby brother. Along the way, Ferb asked his wife, "Did they stick with the name?"

Vanessa smiled and nodded. Victor and Claire had never kept the names of their impending children a secret, and the newest addition was no exception; they had announced the name to any and all interested parties as soon as they knew it was a boy. It hadn't been unusual or unexpected, but it still surprised Ferb a little how much the choice touched his heart.

He was reminded, when they entered the suite, of the births of his own children: the new mother bedraggled but beaming, the new father exhausted but proud, the chattering grandparents oohing and cooing, all silly faces and silly voices. _No green hair_ , was Ferb's first thought, although he wasn't bothered by the fact. Just a sandy brown swatch in front, above brown eyes that blinked at the swarm of strangers, and a solemn, serene little line of mouth. He looked a most remarkable lad, thought Ferb Fletcher approvingly.

Celia pressed up to the bedrail and Mum reached out for her hand. Before she could search out Charlotte, the tinier girl tugged at Ferb's trouser leg and looked up at him. "Gerb…?" she begged, arms outstretched, and Ferb hoisted her up for a better view. Her mother smiled at her and tilted the baby a bit, the better to show him off to his sisters.

Charlotte's sweet face lit up with delight at the sight of the infant, and Ferb felt a moist drop in his eye when the child joyfully greeted her long-awaited brother:

"Oh, _there_ you are, Perry!"

THE END

 **A/N – Yes, Victor's son is named Perry. And you get one guess as to what Felicia will name her son. I really want to do some sort of story someday with the two grandsons/cousins.**

 **I haven't dealt yet with Felicia's family, but she is living in Danville, married, and Mom to a couple of stepkids, for whom Ferb and Vanessa are also Gramps/Grandpa and Granny Vee.**

 **And yes, the pet name "Gerb" is another callback to one of my favorite episodes, "Tri-Stone Area."**


End file.
